Why Latino Christians Treasure January 6

Author - Umn ministry

January 07, 2022

Christian leaders in the US on how el Día de los Reyes (Three Kings Day) brings them closer to their heritage and God.

Much of the global body of Christ knows January 6 as Epiphany, the church calendar’s final day of Christmas and an opportunity to remember the Magi’s early recognition of Jesus as God. In the Spanish-speaking world, this time is known as el Día de los Reyes, or Three Kings Day, and often includes presents, culinary traditions, and even visits from the wise men themselves. For a variety of reasons, the day and its festivities have been inconsistently carried on in American Latino communities.

We asked six Latino Christians to share what el Día de los Reyes means to them, how they celebrate it today, and to what extent last year’s insurrection has affected how they’ll observe the day.

Noemi Vega Quiñones, associate director of spiritual formation and theology for InterVarsity’s Latino Fellowship, Dallas, Texas

Each January 5, children around Mexico (and Latin America and Spain) place their shoes near the nativity scene and anxiously await the gifts the reyes magos (the wise men) will bring the next morning! I grew up with my mother’s stories of her childhood in el rancho (a small pueblo) and how the reyes would bring lupita dolls and cardboard cars, filling their shoes with Mexican candies and cacahuates (peanuts). She taught us that Día de los Reyes was more than just receiving presents. It was a day that recalled the miraculous incarnation of God become man in the birth of Jesus and the miraculous escape from Herod’s genocidal decrees.

Because the attacks on the Capitol fell on January 6, the juxtaposition of el Día de los Reyes and the anniversary of the insurrection give us much to consider. El Dia de los Reyes embodies the truth that God became ...